A 9-year-old Kentfield girl's fight to keep her chickens has failed at the polls.

Raine Matthes and her family were unable to get 51 percent of the 481 Kent Woodlands Property Owners Association members to vote in favor of adding cooped chickens to its list of acceptable pets.

Association board member Barry Evergettis said of the 309 ballots turned in, 188 people voted in favor of the idea and 121 people voted against it. Though 61 percent of those who voted were in favor of chickens, he said the family needed at least 242 votes to change the association's covenants, conditions, and restrictions.

The Matthes family has been trying to keep its four hens — which Raine adores and cites as her best friends — ever since the association sued them in February 2013, demanding the chickens and the coop be removed. The family has already gone through two unsuccessful mediation sessions with the association.

In addition to the association's argument that the chickens violate its codes, Evergettis said the coop itself is also an issue.

"It was built in the setback of the property, which is against our CC&Rs. They didn't get approval to build it," he said.